US embassy cable - 05HOCHIMINHCITY364

UNCLAS  HO CHI MINH CITY 000364 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
GENEVA FOR UNCHR DEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, SOCI, PREL, PGOV, KIRF, VM, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: GVN BEGINS CONSULTATIONS ON DECREE ON RELIGION: FRICTIONS 
WITH UBCV FESTER 
 
REF:  A) HCMC 288; B) HANOI 580; C) 04 HCMC 147; D) HCMC 325; E) 
 
HCMC 190; F) 04 HCMC 1481 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: Contacts in the Protestant community report that 
central- and provincial-level officials have begun formal 
consultations on implementation of Vietnam's new legal framework 
on religion.  The officially recognized Southern Evangelical 
Church of Vietnam has begun a training course for pastors in the 
Central Highlands province of Gia Lai while leaders of the house 
church movement report a sharp reduction in police harassment 
throughout southern and central Vietnam.  Local authorities also 
allowed an unrecognized Hoa Hao group to hold a controversial 
prayer service in the Mekong Delta.  However, frictions continue 
unabated with the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV).  A 
UBCV monk was detained last week while attempting to smuggle out 
of Vietnam a recording of the UBCV General Secretary that, inter 
alia, called for the end of one-party rule in Vietnam.  The UBCV's 
outspoken advocacy for comprehensive political change in Vietnam 
explains continued GVN hostility towards the UBCV even as 
authorities show new flexibility towards other religious 
organizations.  End Summary. 
 
GVN BEGINS TO EXPLAIN NEW DECREE TO PRACTITIONERS 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
2. (SBU) Contacts in the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam 
(SECV) told us that the central-level Committee for Religious 
Affairs (CRA) organized a conference in HCMC on April 1 to 
introduce to practitioners the Implementing Decree on Religion and 
Belief (more on the Decree in refs A and B).  More than 150 
representatives of Vietnam's six recognized religions from the 
southern and central provinces attended.  A similar conference is 
scheduled to take place in Hanoi on April 8.  While the SECV 
welcomed the GVN's initiative to hold the conference, they were 
disappointed with the content and do not have a better 
understanding of how the Decree -- and the entire new legal 
framework on religion -- will be administered.  The conference 
lasted only three hours and was primarily used to introduce the 
participants to the various forms and paperwork that the GVN plans 
to use in conjunction with the Decree.  The SECV plans to hold 
more detailed discussions with the HCMC CRA to discuss 
implementation of the Decree.  Overall, the expectation is that 
the central-level CRA will work with the SECV board and provincial- 
level governments to ensure uniform application. 
 
3. (SBU) Leaders in the HCMC house church community told us that 
they were not invited to attend the April 1 conference.  They had 
not yet received instruction from Vietnamese authorities on how to 
implement the Decree.  Their expectation was that Government input 
would be forthcoming, and they noted positively that the level of 
police harassment of house churches continues to drop throughout 
southern and central Vietnam.  (Note: We have heard similar 
comments from house church leaders in the Northwest Highlands. 
End Note.)  Nguyen Ngoc San, the Chairman of the HCMC CRA, 
confirmed to us on April 4 that his office would begin consulting 
with all religious groups in HCMC on the new legal framework, 
including house church organizations. 
 
4. (SBU) Separately, an SECV leader in the Central Highlands 
province of Gia Lai told us that the SECV was able to begin a 
provincial-level training class for new pastors in accordance with 
the Decree.  The classes were originally authorized in a letter 
from the central-level CRA to the SECV "On the Operation of 
Protestantism in the Central Highlands" (Ref C).  They are 
intended to allow individuals currently working as unofficial 
preachers for the SECV to obtain a diploma and, subsequently, 
Government recognition as SECV pastors, allowing them officially 
to take charge of a congregation of their own.  The SECV indicated 
that it hopes to open a similar course in Dak Lak under the 
provisions of the letter, but preparations there have been more 
difficult. 
 
HOA HAO MEET PEACEFULLY 
----------------------- 
 
5. (SBU) Meanwhile, Hoa Hao dissident Le Quang Liem (protect) told 
us on April 4 that his sect was able to hold a ceremony in the 
Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap on April 3.  The ceremony was 
to commemorate the disappearance of the founder of Hoa Hoaism, 
whom Liem and his followers believe was murdered by the Communists 
in 1947.  Liem told us that authorities in HCMC allowed him to 
travel to officiate and that an estimated 1,000 believers 
participated.  Earlier, Liem had warned that Vietnamese 
authorities would try to prevent the breakaway Hoa Hao group from 
holding the event to which Liem promised his followers would 
respond with protests and possible self-immolations (Ref D). 
 
 
UBCV CONTINUES TO PRESS ITS POLITICAL AGENDA 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) We also are following closely new frictions between the 
United Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) and local authorities.  A 
March 30 report from the International Buddhist Information Bureau 
(IBIB) in Paris reported on the arrest of UBCV monk Thich Vien 
Phuong (strictly protect).  Shortly after the reports we spoke 
with Phuong, who reported that around 4 p.m. on March 30, traffic 
police stopped him on his way back from a visit with UBCV General 
Secretary Thich Quang Do.  The police searched his bag and 
 
SIPDIS 
confiscated audio and video equipment and recordings.  He said 
that he denied to police knowing anything about the tapes during 
his seven hours of questioning on that day.  However, Phuong told 
us that the recordings contained a tape of Thich Quang Do speaking 
in English highly critical of the GVN, the Communist Party, 
demanding democracy in Vietnam and calling for international 
intervention on behalf of the UBCV.  (Note:  On April 5, on the 
sidelines of the UN Human Rights Commission Meeting in Geneva, the 
IBIB reportedly released a transcript of Thich Quang Do's message, 
which called Vietnam's 20-year market-oriented economic reform 
program a disaster and called for international support for UBCV 
efforts to secure democracy in Vietnam.  End Note.) 
 
7. (SBU) In a subsequent conversation on April 5, Phuong told us 
that he returned to the local police station on March 31, where he 
was questioned for one day -- morning and afternoon sessions -- 
about his association with Thich Quang Do.  The police played back 
portions of the recording and presented the UBCV monk with a 
translation into Vietnamese.  Phuong told us that he believed the 
police were attempting to get him to admit that he was part of an 
organized scheme to smuggle anti-GVN material out of the country. 
Phuong again denied knowing the contents of the recordings and 
told police he was only a courier.  Since then, Phuong has not 
complied with follow-on summonses from ward- and district-level 
police.  However, he sent a letter to the HCMC prosecutor's office 
complaining that the police illegally seized the materials and 
equipment and did not properly identify themselves at the time of 
detention.  He alleged that the police also did not make clear 
what the basis was of his detention and subsequent summonses. 
Currently Phuong remains at the Giac Hoa pagoda in Binh Thanh 
district, under the supervision of Thich Vien Dinh, a senior UBCV 
monk. 
 
8. (SBU) Comment:  With the exception of the UBCV, our religious 
group contacts describe progress and rapprochement with Vietnamese 
authorities.  Formal consultations with religious organizations on 
the legal framework on religion, the absence of any significant 
harassment of house churches over the past few months and the 
ability of a previously-suppressed Hoa Hao group to assemble and 
worship all are positive steps forward.  The opening of the 
training course in Gai Lai offers the potential to greatly expand 
the official operations of the SECV there in the near future. 
 
9. (SBU) Unlike other religious organizations in Southern Vietnam, 
the UBCV does not shy from away from mixing politics with 
religion.  Its leaders mince no words that their principal 
position is a fundamental opposition to one-party, Communist rule 
in Vietnam.  Thich Quang Do and others in the UBCV have told us 
clearly that they will use the pulpit to press for democratization 
and political change in Vietnam.  From the Vietnamese perspective, 
this puts the UBCV in a different category from other religious 
organizations.  Under these circumstances, the fear and hostility 
of the Vietnamese authorities towards the UBCV is predictable.  We 
will continue to work closely with recognized and unrecognized 
religious organizations and provincial authorities to press for 
continued progress in expanding religious freedoms in Southern 
Vietnam.  Similarly, we will continue to press Vietnamese 
authorities to allow all activists, including members of the UBCV, 
to advocate peacefully for political change in Vietnam.  End 
Comment. 
 
WINNICK 
 
 
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